"The lessons of 23-F protect us from past mistakes": Moncloa publishes the declassification order in the BOE

BarcelonaThis week marks the 45th anniversary of the attempted coup d'état of February 23rd, and the Spanish government has decided that it was time to declassify the documentation that has been kept under lock and key for years. The order to lift the secrecy was published early this Wednesday in the Official State Gazette (BOE), where the need to make public the "matters, documents, information, data and objects" related to the military uprising led by Tejero, Armada and Milans is justified. These are 153 "documentary units" that, according to the Spanish government's prediction, will be available for consultation through the Moncloa website by noon today.

"Understanding the lessons of 23-F contributes to the protection of our society against the repetition of past mistakes and strengthens the quality of our democratic system," Sánchez's government defends in the declassification order published in the BOE, which bases the decision on the rights to freedom of information, communication, and to receive truthful information, as well as the right of citizens to access administrative archives and records. The document also highlights that the fact that almost half a century has passed since 23-F eliminates the "risk" that declassification could pose to the security and defense of the State.

The executive also recalls that other countries in the region, such as Italy and Greece, have recently declassified "sensitive archives" to "promote a more complete understanding of their history," and that in 2012 Germany made public the transcript of a private meeting between its ambassador and Juan Carlos I precisely about 23-F. The knowledge of our collective history cannot depend on the information revealed by other states: citizens have the right to access their past through their own institutions," claims the Spanish government, which also justifies the measure by the repeated requests from the academic and journalistic community and numerous parliamentary parties.

Indeed, many questions remain to be answered to understand how that military operation 45 years ago was conceived, who knew about it, and why it failed. However, there is a question that has been hanging over the State for years and, to this day, remains unresolved. What role did King Juan Carlos I play?

One of the historical images of that day was the monarch's speech: in the early morning and dressed as a captain general, Juan Carlos appeared before the cameras to call for "serenity" and, to dispel any "confusion," make it clear that he had ordered the civil and military authorities to preserve "constitutional order." Before that, however, he had spent the day making calls, following weeks marked by the resignation of Alfonso Suárez as President of the Spanish government and the first failed investiture session of Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo. Some calls are known, such as the one he had with the then President of the Generalitat, Jordi Pujol, to whom he would address a phrase—"Don't worry, Jordi, don't worry"—which would end up becoming famous. Others have remained in total opacity.

Of all those calls, one is key. While Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Tejero stormed Congress and Lieutenant General Jaime Milans launched a military offensive on Valencia, General Alfonso Armada, the third pillar of the coup d'état operation, picked up the phone and dialed the Zarzuela's number. Armada was no ordinary soldier: he had been the king's instructor and was Secretary-General of the Royal Household until 1977. Various journalistic and historical reconstructions portray him as a military man with political ambitions, who had wanted to lead a government of national unity that would exclude nationalist parties.

What did the king and Armada talk about on February 23rd? The most official account available to date is the one that emerged during the judicial proceedings against the thirty individuals convicted of the coup d'état, with sentences of up to 30 years in prison for Tejero, Milans, and Armada. During the investigation, Sabino Fernández, who was the Secretary-General of the Royal Household during 23-F, recounts that there was a conversation between the king and Armada, and that afterward, Juan Carlos I handed the phone to him. Armada then told him that he was willing to "sacrifice himself" and take over the presidency of the Spanish government to avoid a "bloody end." Fernández limited himself to telling him that if he did so, he could not claim responsibility in the king's name. However, he also wanted to make it clear in his testimony that the idea of the general going to Congress did not "originate" from him. "I had no decision-making authority, and on all occasions, I acted on orders and in the name of His Majesty," he clarified.

Who gave the order?Was it, then, the king who did so? Sabino Fernández could not clarify this, as he was not called as a witness in the oral trial. The official version that appears in the sentence is that this authorization came from General José Gabeiras, Chief of the General Staff. However, what Juan Carlos I recounts about this episode in his memoirs also does not coincide with what Fernández said. According to the emeritus king's account, what he conveyed to Armada was the following: "I am not giving you any permission, and do not go there [to Congress] in my name." There is also no record of the meetings that Armada—pardoned after five years in prison—may have had with the monarch around those dates.

There is even more information that supports the idea that events did not unfold as Juan Carlos described in his book, "Reconciliación". These are audios from the 1990s where he is heard discussing the matter with his lover Bárbara Rey, published by OKDiario: "I laugh, darling, about Alfonso Armada. Seven years in prison, he went to his family home in Galicia, and the guy never said a word."

The version of those convicted of 23-F leaves even less room for interpretation. During the 23-F trial, Milans declared that Armada, Tejero, and he—and others he did not wish to name—had prepared the coup out of "patriotism" and that Armada had promised them that the king was aware of it. Over the years, Tejero became more explicit about the king's supposed role in the coup, ratifying Milans's account and going further: "I screwed King Juan Carlos alive. He had prepared a government to his liking with General Alfonso Armada. But a soldier was needed to carry out the coup. That was me," he said in a telephone interview granted to El Español. Tejero, who was 91 years old at the time of granting this interview, argued that he refused because of the desire to include left-wing parties in this government as well.